On my way to see this I was hoping for more of a First Blood, which I always felt was a decent film, looking at the isolation of someone who was mentally scarred by what he’d seen in the armed forces. The problem with the Rambo films was that they became increasingly ridiculous as the series progressed, taking on tanks with a crossbow by the time 3 rolled around.
The other hope was that Rambo would be treated to the kind of send off Rocky is getting, especially in the excellent Creed films, sadly what we got was Rambo jumping a Rambo sized shark!
I didn’t hate this film, I enjoy Stallone on screen and of course there is the pleasant feeling that comes with some 80’s nostalgia, but that said, Rambo deserved better than this. The plot has more holes than the bad guys when John finishes with them, the premise makes no sense even though the whole story is signposted in 25ft high letters from the start.
It’s a predictable, plodding story that exists only as the platform for the last 30 minutes of full on insanely graphic Rambo revenge action, which introduces a range of new and intriguing killing methods that makes Tarantino look like Walt Disney.
If this is to be the last outing of John Rambo it’s a disappointing one, a bit of a mess, with a ridiculous plot, but not without a splash of full on Rambo for good measure and it is only 89 minutes long!
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